Officers arrested 22 alleged crooks and netted thousands of dollars worth of stolen goods during the return of the highly-popular Operation Assure, which concluded last week.  

Dozens of charges were laid pertaining to aggravated break and enter offences, stealing, malicious damages and possess prohibited weapons. 

Inspector Adrian Telfer said the return of the highly successful campaign yielded good results and proved the effectiveness of targeted crackdowns. 

“We will continue to conduct these high visibility proactive operations into the future to protect the community from these offenders,” he said. 

Police searched 74 people and 11 vehicles and issued 12 move-on directions during the school holiday period, from September 21 to October 4. 

They also issued three children with warnings under the Young Offenders Act and issued 13 traffic infringements during the course of the operation. 

Police also took action for 13 traffic offences during the operation.

The “shock and awe” initiative also saw a significant reduction in residential home break-ins, according to program coordinator Detective Sergeant Ryan Sheaff. 

“It’s spontaneous and opportunistic so by having police out there we are preventing it (property crime) from happening,” he said. 

Among the incidents included a 15-year-old girl “seriously drunk” and possessing a knife who was arrested on breach of bail, and a 16-year-old boy charged on warrants for a serious indictable offence. 

Wagga police’s latest operation, which saw a daily arrest rate of 1.5, was significantly higher than the previous Operation Assure in February. 

The previous crime clamp down, which ran for approximately ten weeks, did not manage to secure an arrest every day.